Aseptic containers have come into greater use in the marketing of beverages and other products. These containers generally have rectangular bases, and their side walls usually include a substantial expanse of flat wall portions. This allows the containers to be packaged in a carton in close side by side relationship with little lost space.
The cartons in which the containers are packaged are normally formed around the containers by a packaging machine while the containers are moving through it. Because the machine must at times form packages holding varying numbers of containers, it has to be capable of segregating from the stream of incoming containers the number of containers intended to be packaged in the particular carton being run through the machine at the time.
An example of a packaging machine designed to perform these functions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,916, wherein the leading articles of the incoming stream of articles are fed onto a vertically movable plate. The plate lifts the articles up to the level of the support surface of the machine and they are pushed along the support surface by a flight bar conveyor which extends the full length of the machine. The carton blanks are moved along the support surface by a different conveying means. Thus the separate conveying systems for moving the articles and the carton blanks must be moved in timed relationship, which is normally more likely to cause operational and maintenance problems that an arrangement in which a single conveying system controls the movement of both the articles to be packaged and the carton blanks. In addition, the presence of the overhead flight conveyor hinders ready access to the machine for purposes of maintenance or adjustment.
In order to improve and simplify the operation, it would be desirable to develop a machine which does not require the package to move through the machine at a different height than the entry level of the articles and which does not hinder access to the path of travel of the articles. It would also be desirable to have a single conveying means for positively controlling the movement of both the articles to be packaged and the carton blank.